The present invention relates to a method and device for selecting a reconfigurable communications protocol between an integrated circuit (xe2x80x9cICxe2x80x9d) card and a terminal.
The interoperability of IC cards and terminals and the migration from existing IC card standards to new IC card standards are concerns in the IC card industry. With regard to achieving the interoperability of IC cards and IC card interface devices, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), in conjunction with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), has promulgated a series of standards pertaining to IC cards, specifically ISO/IEC 7816 parts 1 to 10. A problem with the ISO/IEC standards is that they are too broad and specify a range of functionality which is not practical to implement in its entirety. Because of the broad scope of the ISO/IEC standards, specifications covering IC cards have been developed and published that are tailored within the bounds of the ISO/IEC standards to satisfy the specific needs of certain industries. These specifications may be incompatible with each other and, thus, IC cards supporting a particular standard may not operate in terminals supporting a different standard. Therefore, notwithstanding the promulgation of the ISO/IEC standards, interoperability of IC cards and terminals remains a concern in the IC card industry.
Migration to new IC card standards is also a concern. As industry requirements change and new IC card standards are developed over time, migration to new standards may be problematic. Currently, the migration from an existing standard to a new standard within a region requires the re-terminalization of the regionxe2x80x94i.e., before IC cards and applications compatible with the new IC card standard are issued and distributed within the region, the existing terminals in the region must be replaced in whole or in part with terminals supporting the new standard. This migration scheme is inefficient, however, because there may be a significant delay associated with the re-terminalization of a region.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method and device for allowing the interoperability of various IC cards and terminals and for allowing the efficient migration from an existing IC card standard to a new IC card standard without re-terminalizing a region.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and device for allowing the interoperability of IC cards and terminals. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method and device for allowing the efficient migration from an existing IC card standard to a new IC card standard.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method for selecting a communications protocol between an integrated circuit card and a terminal, the terminal being capable of communicating using at least two communications protocols, with one of the at least two communications protocols being a preferred communications protocol. The method includes the steps of (a) transmitting a reset by the terminal to the integrated circuit card; (b) receiving an answer-to-reset by the terminal from the integrated circuit card indicative of a first communications protocol; (c) determining whether the first communications protocol matches the preferred communications protocol; (d) transmitting, if the first communications protocol does not match the preferred communications protocol, another reset by the terminal to the integrated circuit card; and (e) receiving another answer-to-reset by the terminal from the integrated circuit card indicative of a second communications protocol.
Preferably, the reset in step (a) is a cold reset and the reset in step (d) is a warm reset. Moreover, the method may further include the steps of: determining whether the second communications protocol matches any of the at least two communications protocols supported by the terminal; and aborting communications between the terminal and the integrated circuit card if the second communications protocol does not match any of the at least two communications protocols supported by the terminal.
The method may also include the steps of: determining whether the second communications protocol matches the first communications protocol; if the second communications protocol matches the first communications protocol, determining whether the second communications protocol matches any of the at least two communications protocols supported by the terminal; and aborting communications between the terminal and the integrated circuit card if the second communications protocol does not match any of the at least two communications protocols supported by the terminal. If the second communications protocol does not match the first communications protocol, the method may include the step of determining whether the second communications protocol matches the preferred communications protocol.
Preferably, the method further includes the steps of repeatedly transmitting a reset by the terminal to the integrated circuit card and receiving an answer-to-reset by the terminal from the integrated circuit card until the most current answer-to-reset is the same as a previous answer-to-reset or is indicative of the preferred communications protocol. In addition, it is preferred that the first communications protocol and the second communications protocol are compliant with, but different subsets of, the same communications protocol standard.
In accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a method for transmitting an answer-to-reset by an integrated circuit card, the integrated circuit card having a processing unit and a memory coupled to the processing unit, the memory having stored therein a plurality of answers-to-reset, each of the plurality of answers-to-reset being indicative of a communications protocol. The method includes: (a) transmitting one of the plurality of answers-to-reset responsive to a reset; and (b) transmitting another one of the plurality of answers-to-reset responsive to a subsequent reset.
Preferably, the plurality of answers-to-reset include a first answer-toreset indicative of a first communications protocol operable in a first geographic region and a second answer-to-reset indicative of a second communications protocol operable in a second geographic region, the second geographic region being greater than the first geographic region. Then, step (a) of the method may include transmitting the first answer-to-reset responsive to a cold reset; and step (b) of the method may include transmitting the second answer-to-reset responsive to a warm reset.
The memory of the integrated circuit card may include a pointer stored therein whose value is associated with one of the plurality of answers-to-reset. In that case, step (b) of the method may include: incrementing the pointer responsive to a reset; and transmitting the answer-to-reset associated with the incremented pointer responsive to the reset. The incrementing step may comprise incrementing the pointer responsive to a reset only if the pointer is less than the number of the plurality of answers-to-reset. The method may also include initializing the pointer to a predetermined value responsive to a cold reset.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal for communicating with an integrated circuit card. The terminal includes a processing unit; a memory unit coupled to the processing unit, the memory having stored therein values representative of at least two communications protocols, with one of the at least two communications protocols being a preferred communications protocol; means for transmitting a first reset by the terminal to the integrated circuit card; means for receiving a first answer-to-reset from the integrated circuit card responsive to the first reset and indicative of a first communications protocol; means for determining whether the first communications protocol matches the preferred communications protocol; means for transmitting, if the first communications protocol does not match the preferred communications protocol, a second reset by the terminal to the integrated circuit card; and means for receiving a second answer-to-reset from the integrated circuit card responsive to the second reset and indicative of a second communications protocol.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an integrated circuit card. The integrated circuit card includes (a) a processing unit; (b) a memory coupled to the processing unit, the memory having stored therein a plurality of answers-to-reset, each of the plurality of answers-to-reset being indicative of a communications protocol; (c) means for transmitting one of the plurality of answers-to-reset responsive to a reset; and (d) means for transmitting another one of the plurality of answers-to-reset responsive to a subsequent reset.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of migrating from a first communications protocol to a second communications protocol in a system including a plurality of integrated circuit cards and a plurality of terminals, which are capable of communicating with each other through the first communications protocol only. The method includes the step of issuing one or more integrated circuit cards supporting both the first communications protocol and the second communications protocol. The method may also include the step of replacing one or more of the terminals capable of communicating only through the first communications protocol with one or more terminals capable of communicating through the second communications protocol.